India taps Africa to expand economic footprint

14 Dec '15

3 min read

The Indo-African Chamber of Commerce and Industries which recently hosted the I for Afrika event in Ahmedabad, released a white paper during the event highlighting the thrust areas.

According to the white paper, I for Afrika targeted new business opportunities, setting up a networking platform for B2B meetings and to showcase Indian capabilities and development. The white paper also said that the Chamber would establish business links with more than 40 African countries and plan strategy to help Indian businessmen increase India's economic footprints in Africa, the Chamber said in a press release.

I for Afrika was organized with focus on sectors like agro and food Industry, constructions, infrastructure, energy and power, IT and telecom, textiles, fabrics, apparels and many more to enhance capacity building, initiatives and resource mobilization programme and act as a facilitator for exchange of business cultural, tourism between India and Africa.

K L Daga, President of the Chamber said, “We are very happy to note the intensification of India-Africa economic engagement in recent years. Our bilateral trade has multiplied 20 times in the last 15 years and doubled in the last five years to reach nearly $72 billion in 2014-2015. There is growing investment by Indian companies in Africa in a range of sectors, such as telecommunications, hydrocarbons, agriculture, manufacturing, IT, water treatment and supply, drugs and pharmaceuticals, coal, automobiles, floriculture and textiles.”

Indo-African Chamber of Commerce and Industries Secretary General Sunanda Rajendran has said, “For regional investment and trade to prosper, they have to remove obstacles to cross border business and create markets with greater critical mass, coherence and concentrated economic activity. Out of 54 nations in Africa, 26 countries have already achieved the middle income status.

“Besides Govt. and Public sector involvement we have to concentrate more on private sector involvement and small investments will be a key to accelerate the growth. We also need to have special emphasize on technology transfer. We are not looking for investing more but looking for better investment.”

The event was attended by 250 delegates from nearly 30 African countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia and Ghana. Ethiopia was designated as the “Partner Country” in the vent. ECCSA, the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce led a 30 member delegation, headed by its Vice President Abebaw Mekonnen.

The Vice President in his address, said that his chamber has been striving to scale up competitiveness of local products and services in the global business arena; there by paving ways for knowledge and technology transfer. Besides, ECCSA has also been promoting trade and investment both locally and abroad by organizing business to business meetings and one to one networking arrangements in priority areas of investment; which are believed to be in line with the country's development policies and strategies.

The I for Afrika event included seminars on “Doing Business with India” and “Opportunities in Challenges in Africa and Scope for India”, the release said. (SH)

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